India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Dialogue Forum

IBSA is a unique Forum which brings together India, Brazil and South Africa, three
large democracies and major economies from three different continents, facing similar
challenges. All three countries are developing, pluralistic, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic,
multi-lingual and multi-religious nations. The grouping was formalized and named the
IBSA Dialogue Forum when the Foreign Ministers of the three countries met in Brasilia
on 6 June 2003 and issued the Brasilia Declaration. India is the current IBSA Chair.

2. Cooperation in IBSA is on three fronts: first, as a forum for consultation and

coordination on global and regional political issues; second, trilateral collaboration on
concrete areas/projects, through working groups and People-to-People Forums; and
third, assisting other developing countries by taking up projects in the latter through
IBSA Fund.

3. So far five IBSA Leadership Summits have been held. The 5th IBSA Summit
was held in Pretoria in 2011.

4. The IBSA Trilateral Ministerial Commission (ITMC) is held at the level of Foreign
Ministers. The IBSA Foreign Ministers also occasionally meet on the margins of UNGA.
In 2018, the Foreign Ministers met in Pretoria and issued IBSA Declaration on South-
South Cooperation. In 2019, the Foreign Ministers met in New York wherein they
issued IBSA Joint Statement on the Reform of the Multilateral System. In September
2020, Ministers met through video conferencing and issued the IBSA Joint Statement
on the Reform of the UN Security Council. The 10th ITMC was held recently in New
York at the sidelines of UNGA 77 which adopted a Ministerial Communiqué.

5. The inaugural IBSA National Security Advisors Meeting was held under India’s
IBSA Chairship in 2021.

IBSA Trust Fund

6. The IBSA facility for poverty and hunger alleviation (IBSA Fund) was established
jointly by India, Brazil and South Africa in 2004 and became operational in 2006. Since
its inception, IBSA Funds has allocated over US $44 million, supporting 39 South-South
cooperation development projects in 34 partner countries with the majority of them
being Least Developed Countries (LDCs).

IBSAMAR

7. The 7th edition of IBSAMAR, a joint multinational maritime exercise, among the
Indian, Brazilian and South Africa navies was held recently at Port Gqeberha (also
known as Port Elizabeth), South Africa.

IBSA Visiting Fellowships

8. The first round of IBSA Visiting Fellowships concluded in 2018 and the second
round in February 2019.

Recently held IBSA events

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9. The following IBSA events have been held recently:

 6th IBSA Women’s Forum

 1st and 2nd IBSA Sherpas’ Meeting
 Inaugural IBSA Coffee Festival
 IBSA Tourism Senior Officers’ Meeting
 IBSA Tourism Ministers’ Meeting
 7th IBSA Academic Forum
 1st IBSA National Security Advisors Meeting
 5th IBSA Tripartite Meeting of National Organisations of Standards, Technical
Regulations and Conformity Assessment
 IBSA Youth Summit
 IBSA Joint Working Group on Energy
 7th Meeting of IBSA Joint Working Group on Agriculture
 IBSA Tri-Nations Conference on Small and Medium Enterprises
 IBSA Senior Officials’ Meeting on Traditional Medicines
 Inaugural Meeting of IBSA Development Cooperation Agencies
 10th IBSA Trilateral Ministerial Commission
 IBSA Joint Webinar on Cyber Threat Hunting

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November 2022

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